> February 2007. Whores watching tv, foot massage parlors across the city.
Gallery Director: How about the semi-abstract vaginal portraits?
Gallery Manager: It looks great in the catalogue, but horrible up close.
Gallery Director: Come on, just grab a clit. Grab a pussy.
Gallery Manager: Yes, but there's pubic hair everywhere.
lesson
The boss is always right.
> January 2007. From the Floating Muslim Village in Krabi, Thailand.
American Expat Male: I seriously do not want a daughter! I was listening to the CNN broadcast of the Virginia Tech shooting and they kept talking to clueless students trying to get them to breakdown and cry a la Maury Povich. Anyways, they had one call from a girl named Summer who's a freshman at Virginia Tech and had the sweetest, most innocent voice. Wolf Blitzer asked her, "so where were you during the first incident at 7:15 AM." She answered very quickly that she was at the Phi Si Fraternity House ... and somewhere out there a father's heart sunk like the Titanic.
If it talks like a Be@rbrick and it walks like a Be@rbrick, is it is a Be@rbrick?
> April 2007. Xinle Road, Shanghai.
related facts
Be@rbricks are a slightly more recent kubrick type figure based on a bear shape. Like Hikimono Kubricks, these figures are assorted. Medicom has reached out to designers to create the "paint mask" for the figures and has started a "toy-fever" amongst fans and collectors alike. These Bearbrick molds, unlike the Kubrick line of figures, never changes it's mold. Nothing is ever added to them, such as accessories, either. At least we don't remember anything! The assortment on bearbrick's becomes crazy and wild and varies from series to series. Very hard to truly collect them all, but isn't that a part of the fun? -- Sweaty Frog
"Museum visitors examine a statue of Young Hercules during a preview of the new Greek and Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on April 16, 2007. "
I still can't believe the accompanying photo was ok'd.
> Photography by Reuters/Brendan McDermid.
> Porcelain Shop, February 2007. Fuxing Road, Shanghai.
Surviving in New York is not very much like surviving in Shanghai. In New York, one can never make enough money; no matter how much you make, you always want more. In Shanghai, every breath of fresh air is savored, every quiet block coveted.
Yet as an American in China, I can't say that my quality of life has changed much. I still buy Kleenex and I still use Q-tips. But whereas Kleenex and Q-tips are found in any corner mart in Manhattan, these branded items are only found in select stores around Shanghai. What I consider meeting basic needs translates into a relatively high standard of living here.
If a simple person such as myself <clearing of the throat> is considered well-off by local standards, then what do you suppose happens when the Stepford Wives are transplanted into this type of environment? From what I've seen, the American expat wife community in Shanghai is a petri dish of insecurities and prescription drug addictions. Granted, I had very little opportunity to observe this breed of the American psyche in its native habitat. But the pressure to be more than you are must be intensified here, where suddenly everyone you know is married to the CEO of a multinational; How shameful if your husband were merely in human resources! And belonging to the upper echelons of Arkansas/Milwaukee/Rochester society just doesn't compare to having royal ancestry <enter the European expat wives>.
Boastful exaggerations ensue.
note to self
Stay away from plastic surgery. It does not age well.
1a....And this spiderweb
> Laundry for 400 family members, March 2007. Tulou, Fujian Province.
> Laundry + Pickled Veggies = Harmonious Household, March 2007. Tulou, Fujian Province.
> Here We Go with the Blankets Again.... March 2007. Tulou, Fujian Province.
> Dried Beans Add Fiber to Your Diet, March 2007. Tulou, Fujian Province.
> Dried Fish and Clams on a Basketball Court, March 2007. Gulangyu, Fujian Province.
> Hey! What do you know? They do laundry here as well, March 2007. Wuyishan, Fujian Province.
